SETTING DONES WITH ALUMINIUM.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 309, 12 January 1912, Page 7

SETTING DONES WITH ALUMINIUM.

Various means are used for setting together bones which have been badly broken, but there is much room for improvement in this direction. It is claimed by two French physicians—Drs (Mouchet and Lamy—that an aluminium band put round the bones will give very good results. Heretofore the principal methods of attaching them have been to use metallic sutures or screws, but many difficulties have been met with. It is found that aluminium is by far the best metal to be used in this kind of operation. Any kind of metal clamp must be made somewhat heavy in order to be solid enough; and the use of an aluminium sheathing is much to be preferred, as it is lighter. Pure sheet aluminium is used in this case. Th'e two fragments of the bone are matched together and then bound by putting around them an aluminium band. The band lies an inch or even two over each side of the fracture, thus forming a kind of sheath. The annealed metal is soft enough to be applied tight against the whole surface, and at the same time it is very strong, and thus holds the parts securely together.